Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1887-03-07
A Remarkable Railroad Accident.

The Texas bound train of the Iron Noun
tain Railroad, which left st. Louis Saturday
night, was precipitated into creek by
the bridge giving way, two and half miles
south OF Victoria, Missouri. The engine
and ali the passenger coaches went down
together Only the sleeper was left on the
track. The accident, while not being at all
unusual in regard to fatal casualties, proves
TO have beon quite remarkable ID respect to
several circumstances which attended it.
1t occurred at Victoria, thirty miles south of
st. Louis, little after Ten o'clock, and was
occasioned by tbs giving way under the
train Of the trestie which crosses Joachim
Creek. at that point. The train consisted
Of baggage, express and mail cars, smoker
two passenger coaches ald four sleepers,
rain had fallen all day, and the creek was
much swollen st Hemitite, the first sta
tirn from the trestle, the engineer received
orders to run cautiously, as the rain had
been heavy and the. creek was out of its
banks. Engineer Kelley says he ran slowly
beyond that point, and both be and his fire.
man, Wm Hatch, watched the track very
carefully. rs h. approached the trestle,
Kelley observed that the track was entirely
straight and level, showing nothing wrong,
and he went on without the slight
est fear or hesitation, but when his
engine reached about the middle OF the
trestle he felt the whole structure sink
ing beneath him. In az instant he opened
the valve operating the air brakes full
width, and brought the train to so quick o
stop that the front end of one OF the cars
was crushed in by the sudden shock. This
saved the coaches, but the baggage, mail,
express and smoking cars went into the tor
rent below, carrying with them all the men
on board. Engineer Kelley and Fireman
Hatch went down with the engine and were
submerged in the flood. Kelley, in his
struggles to free himself, found that one of
his feet was held fast, but at the same in.
slant and Just as he realized that he must
drown, the engine turned over, hls foot was
released and he came to the surface. Selling
passing log he cung to it desperately and
was swept down the torrent and lodged
against tree one hundred and fifty yards
below. With scarcely strength enough to
move he casped his legs and arms around q
limb of the tree, became unconscious and
was not restored until two or three hours
after he had been taken from the tree,
when be found himself kindly cared for in q
house in Victoria. His face and head were
severely cut, two Of bis toes cut from one OF
his feet, and he is very badly bruised in va
rious parts of the body. He will recover.
Fireman Hatch was carried about five hum
dred yards down the stream, lodged in
mass OF brush or drift, and was rescued soon
after the flood subsided. He is bruised but
not seriously hurt. The postal car was
swept away some distance, and as
the water rushed through it from
end to end the mail was literally
washed out, and is now scattered over
miles of territory or imbedded in the mud of
the creek, it is regarded as an almost total
loss, the whole OF it being completely soak
ed and the addresses of the letters being OBJ
liberated. The postal clerks, Mccullough,
Shaffar and Ryan, were badly bruised, al
most drowned, and being stripped for work,
thev lost all their clothes, their gold watches,
and about two hundred and fifty dollars in
money were carried away by the HOOD.
The smoker, which ia said to have contained
some twenty persons, WAS swept down
about 500 feet below the trestle, and all OF
its occupants are believed to have been
saved. They succeeded in getting outside
of the car, and cluDg to lis top until tney
were rescued. There is some doubt about
the baggagemar and express messenger be-
ing saved, out late uisHstcH lon 'Ao
wreck says chat none of the trainmen were
lost. a special train was sent from St. Louis
yesterday conveying physicians and medi'
cal supplies. The train returned in the az
ternoon aud brought number Of passengers
and trainmen who did not care to wait at
the wreck until the trestle was repaired. AS
soon as the water subsided sufficiently, q
large gang of men was put to work and
new crossing was finished in the afternoon
and traius are now running regularly. The
cause of the unprecedented flood is believed
to have been cloud burst which took place
late in the evening and filled the creek,
which runs between rugged bills for miles,
so full that it became raging torrent with
current of over twenty miles an hour. land
swept everything before it.